Chapter 6

The white ceiling, the white walls, the pungent smell of disinfectant, the familiar feel of IV needle in his veins.

Hospital.

Looking at the painfully white everything Yuuki blinked couple of times to adjust to the brightness, tears gathering in his eyes, and then closed his eyes with a tired sigh. Both of his last memories were that of a dying. How peculiar.

All those hectic incomprehensible dreams, that left him heaving and confused in the middle of the night, finally made sense. It was strange— remembering.

You know that feeling when your distant relative ten times removed excitedly explains that they changed your diapers, when you were young, and shows your photos from childhood with both of you together in it. And you listen absentmindedly and stare at the familiar but unfamiliar faces, at the familiar but unfamiliar background. With detached sort of fascination, you think 'Oh. So, something like that happened. I see.' And then you forget this useless tidbit of information the very next second.

Because it holds no relevance. So, what if that happened? So, what if they did this and that in the past? What effect did it have on his current life?

That's how he felt right now— 'Oh, I see. So, before this one, there was another life he lived.' That world was as fascinating as it was irrelevant. How can the knowledge of peaceful world —where he was taken care of every step of his life help the current him? In this war-torn world filled with tears and gore and bloodshed — where killing was everyday occurrence, where his first time seeing a corpse happened before he could even walk properly?

It felt similar to how he remembered his old village, his old family. It was somewhat blurry and fragmented. A faded away paradise — with a passage of time emotions that were attached to these memories lost their vibrancy, their colour.

It did expand his horizons though. Yuuki was sold as a prostitute by his own family, and he felt grateful for it. He didn't know how he felt about that right now. In before only people who had nothing else left would try to sell their last asset— their body. And no matter how much others pretended for it to be otherwise, it was a stigma that stayed with you for the rest of your life. But wasn't this better than dying…? He hesitated- was it? No freedom, but safety. Yuuki didn't know.

Speaking of death… he almost died, and he did die. And he killed. He felt nothing. He felt everything. It felt like all of that happened to someone else and he just watched from the outsider's perspective. He knew it happened to him, but he didn't feel like it happened to him.

Yuuki opened his eyes and looked around the room. His hands were small, too small — he noticed in detached sort of manner. Whose hands were they? He was tiny — talking up only third of the bed. Everything around him didn't feel real. The chair by his bedside became more distorted the more he looked at it, the seat expanded and then the next second shrunk on itself, the legs of the chair were melting into the floor, creating a small black puddle - the chair tilting to the side. At this angle it should have fallen already. Then he blinked and the chair turned back to its initial form, and still it felt more like liquid than something solid.

His vision swam, his head hurt, his ears buzzed. The white walls were losing their sharp edges. Why did the whiteness of the room suddenly felt so big, so encompassing? The same way he laid on his back on the grass and the sky embraced him— making him feel that if only he raised his hand just a little bit he would be able to touch the colour of blue.

His eyes didn't stop darting around everywhere, because the moment his eyes rested on one object for too long— it immediately became twisted and warped, moving… And they- they weren't supposed to move, to twist and turn, to be changeable. Nausea was creeping in on him, the acid bile was rising up his throat from the depths of his stomach, the saliva gathering in his mouth, the silent buzz in his ears didn't make the situation any better.

What was happening to him? Derealisation, his mind supplied.

Suddenly his ears were assaulted by the cacophony of sounds. It felt like this whole time he was underwater and now he was dragged onto the sounds became clear, somehow too clear, almost sharp. Yuuki closed his ears with both hands and shut his eyes from the pain.
There were other people in the room— so many: the nurses and the patients and visitors and doctors. And they were so loud, so hectic. How didn't he notice? The room was beyond just being called overcrowded—it was stuffed to the brim.

They were moving in weirdly hypnotic systematic manner: the doctor asked patients, scribbled something on the papers, smiled, shouted the orders to the nurse and moved onto the next patient; the nurses checked on the patients- held the wrist, picked there… pinched here, gave the pills... gave water, fluffed the pillow— moving constantly up and down like a robot; the patients with severe injuries laid on the hospital beds, in hospital garbs, listened to the orders from the doctor and nurses, felt asleep or chatted with their visitors. Andall of them— didn't have faces.

They didn't feel real, they didn't feel human.

Yuuki threw up.

"Doctor! Patient six woke up!"

"Bring the bucket!"

The doctor started asking him multitude of questions and Yuuki mechanically answered them without any thoughts- how old was he, could he tell where they are right now, could he please count from one to ten. "What is his name?" Inwardly he asked himself the same. "Yuuki Okihara," came robotic answer. Just who was he?

Once the topic came to his injures, it felt like boulder was dropped onto his body. Everything hurt. The breathing became slightly difficult again. He wondered if his ribs were broken and put together. The IV wasn't attached to his arm anymore. When did this happen?

Yuuki squinted when the doctor shone the light stick into his eyes. Rude. After blinking couple of times, the black dots disappeared from his vision, and he saw the honey warm brown orbits looking at him with concern. The doctor had a face. For the first time since he woke up, he understood that —what he was looking at… was human. Living breathing creature. With thoughts, desires and emotions.

The doctor rapped knuckles of his fingers on his forehead. "All there, little guy?"

"Yes, em-… sir?" Yuuki shrunk his neck and scooted away. His face was too close to him.

"Nohara-sensei," the man in his mid-twenties supplied the answer with gentle smile on his face. Why did it feel familiar? Was he… a regular of Okiya?

"No…hara- sen…-sensei…" The tongue in his mouth felt heavy. The anxious nurse was hovering behind doctor's back looking at him with pitying eyes. Yuuki felt that if there wasn't shield -doctor- in front of him he would have already been squashed half to death between in her embrace.

"Could you go over the questions with me one more time?"

"Yes, Nohara-sensei." This time his voice was full of confidence, his spine straight at attention.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Yuuki Okihara." And for the first time since he woke up, he actually meant it.

Three hours later two hurried people clad in police uniforms entered the room. The other patients in the room stiffened.

Ten minutes later he was wheeled into another empty room on the floor. The room looked cosy —with couch, shelves with books and green plants. The metallic table in the middle of it made it unsurprisingly uncosy. Yuuki would have felt more comfortable sitting in his usual seiza, but it was not meant to be. The interrogation began.

The cleaned shaved man with black, black eyes and equally black eye-bags stared at him like a hawk, there was slight suspicion in his eyes. The woman with long blonde hair in contrary had bored expression on her face, every ten seconds she took a tiny sip of her coffee like she was trying to prolong it as much as possible. Yuuki felt like there should be some adult supervision on his side. Even if he didn't have parents, there was still Mother and Yagura. Something about it— just felt wrong.

Only now did he realise that he killed someone, killed that man who had pregnant girlfriend? The man, who tried to kill him… Will he get locked up? Panic gripped his heart. After all it was a serious crime, wasn't it?

Yuuki tried to retell his experience as detailed as he could— but when he started talking with his voice trembling, he had to take multiple pauses to recollect himself. Every time he did that, he heard a long-suffering sigh from the blonde, even the expression on the face of the man looked like he was only half listening to him. After looking at his medical files the man completely lost interest in him. At that moment he realised — they didn't care. Someone died— and they don't care. He almost died— and they don't care.

The moment he told them about the water that appeared out of nowhere they briefly looked at each other and nodded. Yuuki felt like that was the only reason he was sitting there.

"So, what is… going to- h-happen to me now?"

The blond scanned him from head to toe and put the piece of paper on the table in front of him. The man said in gruff voice, "What happened to you is called spark. Only children with naturally high chakra reserves could do that, which is pretty rare for civilian children…" He went further to explain what spark meant while Yuuki listened attentively. The chakra and shinobi stuff was as far way from him as possible. It was a chance to know more about this world. His knowledge was highly limited. Before he lived in rural area, the places he passed with Dan were the same, and even if he spent two years in Konoha his actions were severely restricted— he was as good as confined to one house.

The man tapped two times on the paper in front of Yuuki. "This here— is registration form for shinobi Academy-" Yuuki was floored. What did it have to do with him?

"Luckily for you, the next term starts in three weeks' time. And your medical tests were already taken. You are cleared as healthy as he can be." What?

"But-" Yuuki tried to interject when man glared at him.

The blond woman continued instead of the man. "Usually, the orphaned Academy hopefuls would have been placed in the Orphanage, but it is already overcrowded there and anyway… you have already accumulated quiet a debt with Okiya." The woman whistled and raised her eyebrow after looking at the number in her notebook.

"It was decided that you would remain at Okiya until you repay the debt. Further information you can discuss with Riria Anzawa-" Who the hell is that?

"The owner of 'Red Blossom' of fourth generation." Even though he really shouldn't have been— he was still shocked to hear that the old hag had a name. Like all other humans.

Yuuki looked at them with hesitation. "And if I don't register for Aca…?" Before he could finish his words two pair of eyes zeroed on him.

It wasn't suggestion— it was an order.

"You should feel honoured for being granted a permission to become a protector of the Village. Considering your outsiders roots…" Yuuki remembered all lessons Yagura taught about composure while pretending to be shamed about his previous behaviour as the man rattled on and on about the Will of Fire. Switching with the man — Blondie told him how cool it would be, and how amazing the possibilities of chakra. She even performed a Jutsu, at that sight Yuuki didn't have to fake his wonder.

With a couple of weird hand gestures, she took on a form of Yuuki, every strand of hair was identical to him.

At that moment something clicked inside his head. Naruto. He was in the world of Naruto.

He was six years old, he had a pile of debt, and he was mandatory conscripted into equivalent of wizard army. For a moment he felt that maybe— it would have been better to die that day. He shelved all his thoughts to the back of his mind. He can think about it later, he didn't need to have a major freak up in front of police the extraordinary.

"The hospital bill…?"

"It was paid from the assets of deceased, Shin Hoshigi-"

Yuuki looked at the familiar sight of Okiya, somehow it felt foreign. The usual stoic and unflappable Yagura put his hand on his shoulder as he led him inside. Yuuki felt how much Yagura's hand trembled and saw how his shoulders sagged in relief upon seeing him in one piece. The Mother sitting in the chair of her office looked at him like she wanted to eat him alive. He could understand her point.

While Minami was the one who sullied the reputation of Okiya, he was the one who made the matters blow up.

No one told him what happened to Minami, but he never saw her again.